High performance
…in teams
The first way I think about high performance is in the context of a team: what does it mean to be a high performing team?
I often find analogy a helpful device to arrange my thoughts. The analogy I’d choose in this case is that of a Formula One racing team. If you’re not familiar with the sport, Formula One is an extremely fast form of motor racing, where drivers of some of the quickest cars on the planet compete against each other. It is not the drivers alone that are competing, but entire teams of engineers, analysts and race strategists. The margins between success and failure are often mere thousandths of a second.
Innovation and configuration
There are two main ways in which the team can improve the performance of the car. Sometimes the task is to add a totally new part to your car that performs better than the corresponding part on your competitors’ cars, e.g. tires, brakes. At other times, the task is rather to configure the existing parts on your car in such a way that they perform more effectively together.
The ability to innovate rests heavily on psychological safety and, in particular, on trust (see below).
Trust
Formula One cars can reach speeds close to 247mph (397 km/h). At these speeds, a driver cannot second guess himself or the car but must be at one with it. The very best drivers are likely to regularly reach a state of flow by immersing themselves fully in the experience of driving.
Winning races in these conditions is only possible when driving with full commitment and pushing the car to the limits of its capacity (for example, breaking as late as possible into a corner). Aside from the bravery this requires on the part of the driver, they must also have total trust in their colleagues - the mechanics and engineers who designed, built and calibrated the car as well as the strategists making real-time decisions about the race.
Safe spaces
Creating safe spaces is vital to any high-performing team or organisation. There are at least two reasons for this:
- Innovation is risky
- Growth can be scary
💡 Less emotional energy spent on worrying about whether or not a solution will work, means more energy to spend on refining it until it does.